These new works of fiction by Bay Area authors cover a wide range of topics and interests, from immigrant and women’s rights to the search for meaning in a post-modern world. Shanthi Sekaran’s “Lucky Boy” tops the list; novels by Meg Elison and Zach Wyner also delve into serious themes. Pola Oloixarac’s 2008 debut, written in Spanish, arrives in a new English translation; a thriller by Holly Brown and a bit of San Francisco history by Meredith Jaeger are also just out.

DANIEL GRISALESShanthi Sekaran is the author of “Lucky Boy.”

“Lucky Boy” by Shanthi Sekaran (G.P. Putnam Sons, $27, 480 pages)
Berkeley author Shanthi Sekaran tells the tale of two women in “Lucky Boy.” When Solimar Castro-Valdez arrives in Berkeley, she’s come a long way: 18 years old, pregnant and undocumented, she’s made a perilous journey across the Mexican border. Things look promising when she finds a job cleaning houses for a prosperous white family. But when an accident lands her in police custody, her baby son, Ignacio, is placed with foster parents Kavya and Rishi, who are unable to have children of their own. Engaging and thought-provoking, “Lucky Boy” follows the parallel stories of Solimar and Kavya to the end, asking us to consider what constitutes a family and who gets to decide.

“The Book of Etta” by Meg Elison (47North, $14.95, 305 pages)
Meg Elison’s first novel, “The Book of the Unnamed Midwife,” told the story of a woman who survived a plague that killed mostly women and children, leaving ten men for every woman still alive. The book won the Philip K. Dick Award. Now Elison, who lives in Oakland, returns to the same ravaged landscape, with her title character navigating a post-apocalyptic world peopled by scavengers and slave traders. She’ll read from the book Feb. 28 at Booksmith in San Francisco.

“What We Never Had” by Zach Wyner (Rare Bird/Vireo, $17.95, 222 pages)
Josh, the central character of Zach Wyner’s new novel, is a guy with no direction. A few years out of college, he’s living in a one-bedroom apartment, working a low-paid job tutoring teenagers and spending most of his off hours partying with a couple of college friends who have drifted into town and taken up residence on his couch. His crummy relationship with his ex is a problem, too – until she finds herself in a crisis, one that only Josh can fix. Wyner, who lives in Oakland and works with incarcerated youth in the Bay Area, delivers a tale of personal and political awakening with wit and empathy.

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“Savage Theories” by Pola Oloixarac, translated by Roy Kesey (Soho Press, $25, 304 pages) San Francisco’s Pola Oloixarac, named one of Granta’s Best Young Spanish Novelists, takes the reader on a surreal journey through her native Argentina in “Savage Theories.” Set in Buenos Aires, with side trips into politics and pop culture, anthropology and academia, computer hacking and Argentina’s Dirty War, it’s the story of Kamtchowsky and her boyfriend, Pabst; who navigate the darkest corners of the city’s underground. This is Oloixarac’s first novel. Originally published in Spanish in 2008, this edition marks its English debut.

“This Is Not Over” by Holly Brown (William Morrow, $15.99, 370 pages)
How did suspense writers do their jobs before the internet? Cyber-bullying is certainly one of the factors when a chance encounter around a vacation rental site turns dramatic – and ultimately terrifying – in “This Is Not Over.” In her third novel, San Francisco writer Holly Brown delivers a psychological thriller driven by aggression, family dysfunction, substance abuse and old hurts.

“The Dressmaker’s Dowry” by Meredith Jaeger (William Morrow, $15.99, 368 pages) Two women – one, an immigrant seamstress who disappeared from San Francisco in 1876, and the other a well-heeled wife living in the city’s present-day Marina district – connect in intriguing ways in “The Dressmaker’s Dowry.” Meredith Jaeger, a Berkeley native, digs into the past to solve a century-old mystery in this historical novel.